This week’s Saturday Night Live may have ended with two sketches that left me more befuddled than amused — oh, Kyle Mooney, that class-president campaign video made as much sense as recharging one’s cellphone in a pot of boiling water — but thanks to a terrific initial 45 minutes and a monologue with several guffaw-worthy kickers, you can’t really accuse second-time host Louis C.K. of a sophomore slump.

BEST: Opening Monologue
OK, so maybe this wasn’t quite as genius as C.K.’s prior SNL opener, but that’s just quibbling. I loved the bits about the joy one experiences when a child’s stage play finally reaches its end; the awfulness that there’s a garment known as a “wife beater”; and the shock that some athiests argue forcefully against God’s existence. “How do you know? Did you look everywhere?” C.K. demanded to know. Funniest of all, though, was CK’s musing on how Christian faiths hold dear the concept of “God the Father” –without ever recognizing a female counterpart. “What happened to Mom?” the comic asked, wondering if it was time go start gathering evidence of “bleach and rope and fibers.”

BEST: Black Jeopardy
I winced momentarily at the idea of SNL trotting out yet another game-show twist, but Black Jeopardy proved absurdly comical, with a board consisting of categories like “It’s Been a Minute,” “That Girl” and “On Punishment.” Sasheer Zamata scored the biggest laugh of the night when, after correctly guessing “Alizé” by the clue “She Do Hair,” she realized she needed to form her response as a question, then blurted, “Alizé???!!!” Later, as C.K.’s professor of African American studies at BYU asked for the category “White People,” host Kenan Thompson deadpanned the line, “I’d watch yourself, Mark,” bringing the sketch to a close before anyone had a chance to grow sick of it. Well-played.

WORST: Chris Fitzpatrick for ASB President
Maybe this one went over my head — or under my feet — but I didn’t even crack a smile as Mooney delivered to us the campaign video of a chillaxed, rock-loving teenager. Rants and/or explanations in the comments section are appreciated, as always.

WORST: Detectives/Lovers
C.K. and Vanessa Bayer, playing pajama-clad gumshoes negotiating a night of passion, delivered all their lines in stilted, noir-like fashion. “How many holes do we need to make love?” asked Bayer’s cop, after C.K.’s character suggested cutting openings in her nightwear in order to conssumate their love. “How many are you OK with?” he responded, in the least-unfunny exchange of the skit. All I wanted to do as this bit dragged on was grab my own jammies — and head to bed.

What did you think of C.K.s sophomore SNL outing? Grade the installment in our poll below, then sound off in the comments with your picks for Best and Worst!

Chris Fitzpatrick for class president was extremely accurate in portraying a subculture that exists all over America. It was hilarious. That you don’t know about what it was referencing, let alone didn’t find it amusing, proves that you were likely oblivious as a youth and have no place critiquing pop culture.

Chris Fitzpatrick skit was the highlight of sketches. Hilarious and Extraordinary accurate of every suburban high school guy trying hard to be cool. Every school had this guy, either you didn’t pay attention in high school or you were homeschooled. Besides that guy always is the best in sketches as well as Kenan Thompson

Yeah, I laughed so hard at that sketch, and I don’t universally love all of Kyle Monney’s stuff, but I was nearly crying by the end of it. And I honestly thought this was a very uneven episode, of which this was a standout.

I thought tonight’s episode was great. The monologue was wonderful, and the Darth Vader skit made me laugh harder than I would like to admit. The show lost steam at the end, but overall it was quite strong. Louis CK is becoming one of my favorite hosts.

This was not a very good episode. The opening monologue was ok and the Black Jeopardy skit was creative and funny, but the rest was just painful. “Dyke and Fats” had great potential but was just ok. WEEKEND UPDATE was terrible. Sigh. I had high hopes. Btw did they announce the next guest to host? I want to start a campaign to have Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellan co host. They are hilarious and I think just what this season needs, especially after tonight.

The Chris Fitzpatrick for ASB President sketch was absolutely amazing. It’s one of the SNL sketches I’ll remember all my life. I loved it. If you went to high school from the late 1990s untill now you would completely get this sketch. It was incredibly accurate to the stereotype it was portraying down to the monotone unenthusiastic “way too cool” voice it was in and the terrible MS Paint graphics. It was truly a genius piece of comedy. Its rare that comedy gets that close to reality. That sketch alone makes this episode an A+ In my book.

I respect your opinion on the sketch, and appreciate you sharing your thoughts on it. I for one did go to high school in the 1990s – I graduated in 1994. And I also ran for student government (ASP Vice-President to be precise… and I won). I ran a crazy silly campaign – I made the silliest campaign promises like “vending machines in the cafeteria will be free, and give you money too”, my speech was simply non-sense but fun. I won because people enjoyed my company – and maybe I can’t relate well because I didn’t go to school with anyone like the character in the sketch.

But on a different note – Kyle’s comedy style doesn’t go over well on me. I think SNL hired him in part to fill the huge void that Andy Samberg filled with his digital shorts (can you name many SNL cast members had almost full creative control on one skit each airing?). Maybe I’m missing something here, but all of Kyle’s sketches so far have been unfunny and lacking of wit to me. Kyle traditionally has delivered quirky, often disconnected, basic, simple and imho lacking in intelligence and wit comedy writing and acting (if you haven’t yet, check out some of his YouTube videos, and not the HBO Hello Ladies episodes, the ones on his personal channel where he was in full control of writing and directing).

No matter what I will always love SNL – I think there is an understanding and way about the show that transcends the cast that will always right itself. I love too how Lorne and others give the cast members time to “find themselves and where they fit”. When Jay Pharoah was brought on I thought he would have trouble stepping up to lead roles, and I thought he was a bit intimidated next to such amazing cast members like Wig, Sudekis, Hader, Thompson, Armisen, Samberg, Meyers, etc.. I never would have imagined Jay would step up the way he has – I’m incredibly impressed to see how far Jay specifically has come.

And to that I don’t think Kyle will be leaving SNL anytime soon (that is unless he wants to). I think like all cast members he will be given his time and space to develop and mature as an SNL cast member. I only hope he proves me wrong and not only feels comfortable in his roles, but also can deliver more compelling, interesting and thought provoking content as long as he’s given the opportunity to personally craft one sketch a week.

1994 was too early. I graduated in 2003. If the guy had a flannel tied around his waist and holes in his jeans you might have related. I dont think Samberg’s shorts were as funny as they could have been, one exception being Ras Trent, which was along the same lines as this. They did make me laugh but came nowhere close to the Robert Smigel cartoons they replaced. They often were funny in them selves without relating to something real. Examples being Andy Walking Into Frame and People Being Punched While Eating. Like Fallon’s humor they often relied heavily on celebrities being present and wouldn’t be funny without them. They also don’t require the viewer having experienced certain aspects of American culture, which is what Kyles sketches do. This I admit leaves some viewers in the place of LCK’s character in Black Jeopardy, which is not good when you’re trying to make everyone laugh. Judging by Kyle’s humor he and I must be members of the same American subculture. I also don’t think Fallon is as funny as he could be but I do think he’s a great guy. No disrespect, we must have different senses of humor and a different American experience. However I totally agree with what you said about Jay. That man has an incredible gift of being able to make everyone laugh.

i agree, graduating in ’94 you didn’t have access to classes where they force you to make videos with graphics like those. and how it was edited with the shots of teh car wrecks and him jumping doing “freestyle walking” moves, making faces and everything else mentioned (trying too hard, the monotone voice, goofy unrealistic promises) plus him making fun of the other candidate for not having ever smoked a cigarette was classic. as the above commenter stated, we must have different senses of humor because i found this sketch hilarious and incredibly spot on and nuanced and highly intelligent. just because you dont understand something don’t put it down by saying its not intelligent. if anything, you are the unintelligent one for not grasping that you do not grasp the entire point of the sketch.

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Sam Smith was really good, especially on the second song. His performances treminded me when Adele first performed on SNL with Chasing Pavements, and I immediatel bought her 19 CD after it. Will do the same with Sam on itunes. Great breakout for him. Loved his falsetto.

The fact that you didn’t get Mooney’s sketch, or that it “went over your head” is alarming. I say this because you are “judging” the humor of these episodes. Mooney’s sketch is some of the sharpest and wittiest comedy out there today. For you to not understand this certain brand of humor absolutely discredits your ability to gauge whether or not subject matter is “funny.”

I give the Louis CK episode of SNL an A and yes, last night was one of the show’s best this season and it did rebound from two disappointing episodes (Parsons & Dunham) in the post-Seth Meyers era. The Black Jeopardy sketch was the best in my opinion as did the one where Aidy, Kate, Cecily & Sasheer sang and my honorable mention: Dyke & Fats. My MVP of the night: Aidy Bryant. I’m all in for Anna Kendrick next week ‘CAUSE I’M HAPPY :-)

i was not a fan of this session. black jeopardy was good, and i laughed at the ridiculousness of Dyke & Fats (it was like a big EFF YOU to the haters and trolls out there. genius!) but Sam Smith’s performances are really all I got out of this episode.

Beck Bennett’s physicality in that is brilliant. This is just a case where you’re not willing to go along with the premise so you hate the whole thing. His work was probably the most difficult of the night, and he pulled it off. I don’t think you have to have kids to appreciate what he did either. If you’ve seen enough babies, he obviously nailed it.

I myself had enough of the baby body the first go ’round. I really have to point out the major flaw in the premise: he is suppose to be a MAN with merely the BODY of a baby. He is suppose to be a CEO financial genius. Therefore, when he behaves like he has the brain of a baby the sketch no longer makes sense. The baby body man would not enjoy playing with a box, etc.

My apologies for the lateness of this reply; I just caught this on my DVR. I was reading the comments waiting for someone to address “Baby Boss”. You nailed it, Shannon. While I can appreciate Bennett’s physicality/acting, the premise makes absolutely no sense: he’s supposed to have the body of a baby, not the intellect. “Baby Boss” seems like a parody of a poorly written SNL sketch.

Kyle Mooney is the best actor SNL has hired in years. He is subtle and smart with his writing and his performance completely makes the rest of the castmembers (save Cecily Strong, Taran Killam and sometimes Beck Bennett & Mike O’Brien), look like 2 dimensional caricatures. I hate all the shmacting on SNL (Kenan Thompson is one of the worst!). Sure, it’s just sketch comedy, but the best actors can get you to laugh even when the writing is terrible because they commit to the character and find the comedy in the little truthful moments. I don’t love Kate McKinnon (I feel like she relies on her “crazy eyes” a little too often), but she certainly commits and goes balls out, so I respect her for that. ALSO: I know some actors work bc they have their “thing” they always do, but I would so love to see actors with more range on this show. Both new girls- Sasheer and Noel have been big letdowns for me. They’ve had quite a few opportunities to show us their chops this season, and didn’t take the opportunities to really transform. Noel does good vocal impressions but I don’t see much going on in her body or face, it seems like youtube is a better platform for her than live comedy. Sasheer’s Kerry Washington was simply a costume and a lip quiver. That could have been so much funnier!
So that was harsh on some of the actors, and I’m sure many of you disagree. I know they work hard and all are talented in different ways. But considering the casting process for SNL is one of the most selective ever, I expect a whole lot more when I watch. If SNL wants to get viewership back up they should fire half their cast and find actors with bigger range and better acting abilities. Oh and hire better writers- my God, find better writers. Please, no more sketches about social media— they’re the WORST! I hated the cold open- who cares about hipsters instagramming anymore? That was kinda funny two years ago.
Rant over. In short: I’m so appreciative of Kyle Mooney on SNL and really glad to see so many other people agree!

Louis C.K. has my utmost admiration for being the only host within living memory who didn’t open his monologue with “It’s so great to be back hosting Saturday Night Live!” and also didn’t slip in a gratuitous plug for his latest project, in his case his soon-returning T.V. show. Both of those things make me cringe with every other host, so bravo Louis.

Kinda surprised that Mr. Big Stuff was considered a highlight. At best, it was mediocre and one note. The best part about it was Louis CK really trying to sell his character. The premise wasn’t that great.

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I have to agree with the people in the comment section. That chris fitzgerald sketch was spot on. I came here to watch it again because i’ve been thinking about it ever since. One of the funniest skits I’ve seen in a long time on snl.

I also don’t agree with your opinion on Louis’ monologue. I thought it was genius and funnier than his entire last special Oh My God.

I was extremely disappointed in the show though. They didn’t write any funny roles for Louis.